Maybe you didn’t know you needed a ribbon and sparkle-suit clad Black woman who can explain why using police as debt collectors leads to the killing of Black people in one breath, then bust out a retro R&B jam for the vaccinated in the next. But Th…
Phil Wang review – standup’s Netflix special skewers PC panic, Covid racism and himself
NetflixWang studs his special with memorable one-liners that dissect his feminist pretensions, the fear of ageing and UK perceptions of east AsiaFrom the other side of a global pandemic, here comes Phil Wang’s maiden Netflix special. Due for a spring 2…
Cancel culture killing comedy? What a joke
Chris Rock, Jennifer Saunders and more have argued that ‘wokeness’ is stifling comedy. But the idea of the joke police is actually nonsenseIs cancel culture destroying comedy? A lot of comedians seem to think so. John Cleese has fretted that “wokeness”…
‘We’re the weirdos – the joke’s on us’: on the set of the People Just Do Nothing movie
The Kurupt FM crew are back in a big screen, fish-out-of-water adventure set in Japan, complete with lots of eye-wateringly tight DayGlo LycraOn an Uxbridge film set, the cast of People Just Do Nothing are clad from neck to ankle in DayGlo Lycra. Frank…
Ghosts series three review – does the fearsome fright club need new blood?
Hard-drinking toff Barclay Beg-Chetwynde seems set to be the next member of the phantom troop, in the only TV show that would benefit from bumping more people offHell is other people. Bad enough to spend lockdown finding out if your nearest really are …
Peter Kay gets standing ovation on return to stage at charity gig
Comedian tells live Q&A in Manchester that comeback is ‘like getting in a hot bath’ Returning to the stage is like “getting in a hot bath”, Peter Kay said at a special charity gig.The Bolton-born comic received a standing ovation as he appeared on…
Edinburgh Fringe returns with mix of in-person and online shows
Festival is part of world’s largest annual arts season which has been forced to curtail events due to CovidThe Edinburgh festival Fringe returns this weekend with a hybrid programme of nearly 800 in-person and online shows after its cancellation last y…
Mel Brooks announces his first memoir at the age of 95
All About Me!, to be published on 30 November, will cover everything from the film director’s military service to his long comedic partnership with Carl ReinerAt the age of 95, the comedian and film-maker Mel Brooks has written his first memoir. All Ab…
Not the way to do it: Punch and Judy professors decry aggressive audiences
Bad behaviour at shows no longer confined to characters as people refuse to pay for watchingUgly quarrels, outbreaks of unacceptable violence and a sense of anarchy have traditionally been a feature of one of the British seaside’s most curious theatric…
Zola review – pulp-factual viral tweet becomes an icily slick urban thriller
Aziah ‘Zola’ Wells’s viral story of her crazily dangerous 2015 trip to Florida in search of pole-dancing money is brought to the screen with seductive comedyIn 2015, a part-time dancer from Detroit called Aziah “Zola” Wells went viral with a cheeky Tw…